Unless you’re looking to get a physical copy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, chances are you’ll be looking at the US Nintendo eShop, among other popular options. And if that’s the case, you may have noticed that the upcoming sequel to Breath of the Wild has a higher than usual price tag. This is not an error, as the company announced the same during its Direct stream recently. But for what it’s worth, the publisher said that this won’t be a trend moving forward.
Responding to inquiries by Game Informer, Nintendo has basically given the same answer to two related questions. Which is that it determines prices for any of its products “on a case-by-case basis”.
This is the first time that Nintendo has priced its game above the US$59.99 (~RM260) price point. Sony Interactive Entertainment wanted to raise game prices for the then new PS5 console up to US$69.99 (~RM303), and it has turned out to be the case as time went on. Microsoft, on the other hand, said it will be using this new price for Xbox first-party games starting this year. Though for Nintendo, from the statement that the company gave, it gives the impression that the new price tag won’t be the norm moving forward.
On the flip side though, the company won’t be cutting prices anytime soon either. According to VGC, during a financial results briefing Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa acknowledges that it will be difficult to continue selling Switch hardware at the rate it has been up until now. But at the same time, reducing prices is not something that the company is considering. Instead, the company will continue to release new and classic games to grow the user base. Which is fair, but it’s not like the company was generous with sales or discounts to begin with.
Quite recently, the Nintendo Switch became the third best selling video game device of all time. And a sequel is only expected to be announced next year.
(Source: Game Informer, VGC)
